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Frequently Asked Questions

Who can access SAGE journal articles?

A huge number of scientists, faculty members, graduate students and clinical researchers can already access SAGE journals by virtue of online subscriptions throughout the world, often directly from users’ desktops. In addition, our licenses permit all public users who are permitted by the library to walk in and use its resources to access all journals to which the institution subscribes. The visibility and accessibility of SAGE journals has never been higher.

What is SAGE Choice?

SAGE Choice is an optional program whereby authors of papers published in participating journals can make their primary research articles freely available on SAGE Journals immediately upon publication to anyone with internet access. This program enables authors, on payment of a fee, to make their articles immediately available electronically to non-subscribers as well as subscribers.

Why has the SAGE Choice program been created?

The SAGE Choice publishing option has been designed to support authors who wish to post an open access archive copy of their published work on publication. In addition, it provides a mechanism by which authors can comply with funding body requirements. The policies of grant funding bodies throughout the world (e.g., NIH, Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, etc.) vary widely with regards to open access archiving. Some request or require open access publication and vary widely in the terms under which this is carried out, including whether the work is deposited in a public repository (such as PubMed Central) for instance. SAGE Choice is designed to be compliant with some of the most stringent requirements.

SAGE fully understands the shifting demands on authors whose work is funded by bodies such as the NIH and Wellcome Trust amongst others. We believe that as their publishing partner, our role is to facilitate authors’ ability to carry out and publish their research in our journals in compliance with these demands wherever possible. Enabling this in a manner that aligns with our mission, values, high standards of peer review and requirements as a Publisher, and in the interest of engaged scholarship is the foundation of the program.

Can I publish in these SAGE journals and comply with the Wellcome Trust Policy?

Yes. SAGE is compliant with Wellcome Trust requirements. Authors funded by the Wellcome Trust should contact the Wellcome Trust for reimbursement of their SAGE Choice fee.

Is my paper eligible for the SAGE Choice program?

Only peer-reviewed, original (primary) research papers accepted after 1 October 2006 by the participating journals (see above) will be eligible for the program. Papers accepted prior to 1 October 2006 are not eligible.

Can I opt for this program for other papers (Review articles, book reviews, news items, etc.?)

No, only primary research papers from the above journals are eligible for the program.

When will I be given the option to participate in the SAGE Choice program?

You will be provided with this option only after acceptance of your paper. Your willingness or otherwise to participate in the program will not be a factor in the peer review or decision making of your paper. This will prevent any possible conflict of interest.

On acceptance, authors who wish to take up this option and pay the associated fee should contact SAGE directly.

How much is the SAGE Choice Fee?

For the majority of journals published by SAGE the fee per article is $3,000USD/£1600GPB in Science, Technology and Medical fields, and $1,500/£800 in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Click here to view a complete list of participating titles in SAGE Choice and their 2013 APC. Discounted fees may be available through your institution or library. Authors should direct enquires to their university.

The fee, to be paid by the author(s) prior to publication, will offset publishing costs inherent in article submission and peer review, typesetting, tagging and indexing, hosting on dedicated servers, supporting sales and marketing costs, permanently archiving the final article, and posting to the requisite repositories that will house the article for public view.

Can an institution pay the SAGE Choice charge for authors?

It is the ultimately the responsibility of author(s) to arrange payment of the open access charge. However, a number of institutions and funding organizations (e.g., the Wellcome Trust) have declared their willingness to make additional funds available to cover the costs of open access. Please contact those responsible for administering funds at your institution or organization, or your grant funding body.

When does the payment need to be made?

SAGE needs to be notified of your wish to join the SAGE Choice program as early as possible after acceptance of your article and to have received payment prior to the publication of the article.

What if I cannot make the payment in time before publication?

SAGE will publish your paper in the traditional manner on SAGE Journals in order not to delay availability of your article to subscribers. Please contact SAGE and we will assess whether we can retroactively include your article in the program.

In this program, must I attribute my funding source?

If funding has been provided for your research, traditional practice is to acknowledge the source and grant information in your article. In some cases, grant funders require authors to attribute their funding source, including grant numbers. Funding and grant information should be included in the Acknowledgements and Funding section of the text. Where applicable, this should describe the role of the study funding body and include the relevant grant reference number. Please note that this is not limited to SAGE Choice articles and applies to all papers.

Will I need to deposit my article to PubMed Central, or will SAGE deposit on my behalf?

After SAGE has received a signed SAGE Choice license form and payment of the SAGE Choice fee, SAGE will arrange for the deposit of the final version of your article once it has been published to PubMed Central and authorize its replication in UK PMC and PMC International when available, where your funder requires it.

What agreement do I need to sign in order to make an article open access?

On acceptance, you will be given the opportunity to opt into SAGE Choice by contacting SAGE directly. You (and/or your co-authors) will be required to sign a SAGE Choice license form in addition to the traditional transfer of copyright form typically signed by authors.

I realize that you need the SAGE Choice license form back in a timely manner. Can I fax this form or send a scanned PDF of my agreement?

As long as the license form is signed by the relevant parties (both actual signatures and electronic signatures are accepted), we will accept it via email, fax, or mail.

What if I have co-authors contributing to this article?

You must ensure that you have the consent of all co-authors to submit the article for publication and that you have the right to sign the agreement on their behalf. Should you opt for the SAGE Choice option, all authors must be in agreement and at least one author will need to provide payment of the publication fee.

What if my employer holds the copyright in my work?

Please contact SAGE directly, as you may need to sign a separate form.

What if I am a government employee?

Please contact SAGE directly, as you may need to sign a separate form.

If I cannot, or do not wish to, take up this option, what options do I have?

On acceptance, SAGE will publish your article without delay in a professional manner. There will be no process, timing or quality differences between SAGE Choice and traditional papers. Your paper will be made available, as normal, in print and online to subscribers of the journal and will be promoted in the ongoing marketing campaigns relevant to the journal.

If I do not select the SAGE Choice option, what rights do I have in terms of posting my author manuscript to freely accessible sites?

Your agreement with SAGE, under normal terms, will allow you to post your final version of the manuscript (the version post refereeing, and as accepted for publication, to which you can incorporate any changes introduced during copyediting and proofreading) to your own personal website, your institution’s website, and to PubMed Central, no earlier than 12 months after publication by SAGE on SAGE Journals Online.

I am an NIH grantee: what can I do to comply with the NIH mandate regarding open access archiving of my manuscript in PubMed Central?

As above, your regular agreement with SAGE will allow you to post your manuscript version 12 months after publication.

What are my rights and obligations, as an author under the SAGE Choice program?

On signature of the SAGE Choice Contributor’s Publishing Agreement (CC BY-NC) and payment of the fee, SAGE will license you with the following worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual rights in your Contribution.

You may re-publish and/or reproduce the whole or any part of your Contribution in any printed or electronic work written, edited or compiled by you, or any collective works with which you are directly affiliated, following publication in the Journal, provided the usual acknowledgements are given regarding copyright notice and reference to first publication by the Journal and SAGE. You may make photocopies of your article for your own teaching needs or to supply and distribute on an individual basis to research colleagues. You may also create and reproduce derivative works based on your Contribution in all media provided acknowledgement is given regarding your original Contribution to the Journal and SAGE.

All rights not expressly granted herein are reserved by SAGE. (e.g., you may not sublicense the Contribution for any commercial use or purpose).

You (or SAGE) may post/make electronically available the abstract and up to 100% of your own version of your paper as accepted for publication, including all corrections made by you following peer review, copyediting, and proofreading on
(a) your employer’s website or repository and/or
(b) on your own personal website
(c) in PubMed Central

On publication in the Journal, provided the usual acknowledgements [*see below] are given regarding copyright and reference to first publication by the Journal and SAGE, and provided this is not through a third party commercial provider, as all third party requests for use of material from the Journal should be forwarded to SAGE. In each case we ask that you provide a link/URL from the article you have posted to the SAGE Journals Online page where the final, definitive article is published: http://<Acronym>.SAGEpub.com/.
*Authors must include the following acknowledgement whenever making electronically available/posting the Contribution:

Authors required by funding mandate to publish under a CC BY license can publish under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) that allows use of the work for commercial purposes. This allows all users users to
(a) Share (copy, distribute and transmit) the work

(b) Remix (adapt) the work

(c) Use the work for commercial purposes

Attribution – the work must be attributed in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). For any reuse or distribution you must make clear to others the license terms of this work.

How do you cite an open access article?

Any article under open access may be cited in the same way that you would cite any other article. Articles that are online prior to their publication in the print issue of the journal can be cited using their DOI (Digital Object Identifier-see www.doi.org).

Rather than giving the volume and page number, you can give the article’s DOI at the end of the citation. For example:
Author(s) J Psychopharmacol, day month year (doi:10.1177/0269881106066333).